Name's Jason Thibeault. I'm an IT guy, skeptic, feminist, gamer and atheist, and love OSS, science of all stripes (especially space-related stuff), and debating on-line and off. I enjoy a good bit of whargarbl now and again, and will occasionally even seek it out. I am also apparently responsible for the death of common sense on the internet. My bad.

EVENTS

Raising Boys Feminists Will Hate: The Book (The Trailer)

Not sure if I’ll be able to write a post I’ve got brewing in my head immediately, with all the various things that need doing this weekend, so I’ll put this up for now. Actually, I have two posts in mind, but both of them will take some doing to set to e-paper.

I’m sure this is a book you’ll all rush out to buy immediately. Doug Giles has apparently written a book on how to raise boys who are Manly Men cut from the Manly Mold without any of that pussification that comes from caring about other human beings’ autonomy or self-direction. But what I like best about this video is Giles’ amazing oral skills.

This guy is just grand. “A rouged and giddy American Idol hopeful”? “Feministas” (paging Paula Kirby, someone’s an inch away from biting your style!)? “Leading this country back to God and greatness”? And all the gratuitous Clint Eastwood and Sean Penn movie clips of yesteryear are icing.

But wait, you can download a Kindle? Interesting! Maybe it’s a 3D printer file so you can home-fabricate your own Kindle? Or maybe the guy doesn’t have the first sweet clue about technology, public speaking, or really anything but raising kids exactly the same way that our modern society has always raised kids — with rigid gender roles and a disdain for difference.

Hey, I’m no public speaker myself. But if I ever try to turn myself into one, short of chatting geekily on a panel at a fan-run geek convention like Convergence, I’m damn well going to put some effort into stepping up my game.

Parody of things like racism and sexism is a tricky business. Many have rightfully pointed out that hipster style “ironic” racism tends to just be plain old racism, even if it’s not the intent. I’m not 100% anti-intentionalism myself, but there’s clearly a problem there.

Here’s the rule. Is your racist comment intended to shed light on real racism and actually parody it? Is it funny because it’s making fun of racists or sexists, or is it funny because it’s making fun of a race or gender?

Two examples spring to mind. Steven Colbert makes “ironic” jokes about racism and sexism all the time. It’s basically part of his persona. The reason it works is because the things he’s saying are meant to make fun of the racists and sexists, usually those who don’t even realize that’s what they are or that the definition of racism and sexism evolves over time.

Now there’s Daniel Tosh. That’s an individual who’s racist and sexist jokes don’t appear to be making fun of the racists and sexists at all. The jokes are completely targeted at people of color or women and simply use existing stereotypes. The “joke” appears to be “hey I’m not racist/sexist but, isn’t this person living up to the stereotypes?” Hardeehar Tosh, you’re racist, you’re sexist. You lose. Good day sir.

So to that end, I have no idea what the content of this book is, so I can’t say just yet if it goes one way or the other. I can’t watch the video at the moment either. If anyone has read “The alphabet of Manliness”, that’s one that has some really harsh stuff, but by all appearences my reading of it is as hilarious parody of every “manly” archetype taken to a ridiculous extreme, such as the evolution of the ultimate man, the Lumberjack with his “plaid shirt of sharp lines at right angles, defying all the evils of the natural world”, who have declared a war on trees and have endangered species eating bulls. There’s also this rather interesting tip to would be pirates in the workplace. (Warning!) “Rape is considered impolite.” There are a number of people who could use that lesson unfortunately.

If I ever found out that ridiculously preposterone infused book was meant to be taken seriously, I’d be shocked and saddened.

A case could be made that sometimes parody is too close to the real thing to actually count as parodying it — I know a number of people who think Colbert is too good a parody, too close to the real conservative sexism and regressivism that he simply reads as more of the same. There’s a reason so many Republicans have a hard time realizing Colbert’s schtick is actually making fun of them by being a good example of one of them — they think he’s actually skewering liberals, not conservatives.

I find it ironic that the cover of his book features a male lion. Isn’t lion society pretty much governed by the females of the pride?

Watching the video, the main question that came to my mind was “WTF is off camera to his right that he keeps looking at?” That, and how his lower jaw doesn’t seem to move. It looks like he’s had his jaw broken in the past… probably in some battle for dominance with some other “alpha male” I’m sure.

#1: I admit it, I had no idea Colbert was doing parody until my husband pointed it out to me. I do have a hard time with sarcasm and ironic parody blah blah in the first place, so this is to be slightly expected of me. BUT, I will say that he still sometimes leaves me flat because he really is just too good at what he does and, therefore, becomes what he’s trying to mock.

Isn’t it hilarious that a guy who talks about manly man boys apparently overdid on botox? I mean, I’m still doubfull whether his jaw muscles move, but most certainly no uscle above the jaw moves.
BTW, More aptly call it “boys everybody will hate”. Society doesn’t well tolerate guys stomping their foot and having a temper tantrum because that’s manly much anymore.

An issue of being a parody – I think a lot of it comes from whether your audience knows enough about your real views to be able to know that you’re making a parody. Colbert – I know what he’s *really about* so I know he does not believe the things he says. I know nothing about some other people, so I suspect that they’re only expressing what they really feel and are using the ‘I was joking!’ as a convenient cover if they get called out. Though part of this is dependent on my level of media literacy.

Yeah, that was my initial thought too. So you want to teach your kids how to look bad in comparison to my kid? Sure, be my guest.

But, that’s not a really good answer. You know the folks who follow his advice are going to turn out little sexists and harassers. Nobody wants that. Its unfair to the girls who will get treated badly and the impressionable boys getting taught this drivel.